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"Nothing lasts forever. Some things aren't meant to be. But You'll never find the answer until you set your old heart FREE."

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The Dark Prince of Art and Fairy Tales is the forbidden portrait my hands wouldn't have dared to sketch. Not for public gaze anyway. Had I dreamed him up myself he would have found home in the secret pages of my tattered sketch book where I've laid to rest all the possibilities of my forbidden world. Where I've lied to myself beneath moonlight and twinkling stars about what's real and what's not. It's impossible to imagine bringing him to life and even more blasphemous to do so. I can still hear the voices of doubt telling me;

"Why do you believe in stupid stories?"

"They aren’t real, Idiot!"

"You have to grow up, Alley Cat."

"Get your head out of the clouds."

In my dreams, he would have been my go-to refuge. My personal boogeyman that I cuddled with beneath my bed instead of fearing him. The imaginary monster in my closet I would have shared all my snacks with while everyone else wondered what I was hiding, again. But I'd know like my ineffable fantasies that to me he would be real. I wouldn't have dared bring him to life. I would have coveted him for my own sake.

But The Dark Prince of Art and Fairy Tales is a creature made man straight from a storybook but altogether different. A contradiction to the common perceptions of what it means to be born in a castle to the Mistress of All Evil. He's mysterious in an artist's right yet an open book, leaving pieces of himself behind in beguiling art. He's charismatic for an audience but equally as enigmatic as his mother's dreaded riddles. That was until I wondered closer to get a better look.

I have been told that the imagination is a powerful thing but despite our overwhelming willingness not everything we dream can be brought to life. Me? I think once I gave my dreams a home inside of myself there was nothing I could do to stop the violent big bang of their creation as they spilled over into reality. Once upon a time, I was the gullible child that bought into the stifling lies of the world and would watch as everyone tried desperately to shatter my imagination.

But this Dark Prince of Art and Fairy Tales has removed the self imposed blindfold over my eyes and stands beside me beneath the warm shine of gallery lights to remind me that: